Mattancherry, on the Fort Cochin Peninsular, across from the quarantine anchorage

6:13 pm local time

Hi All,

  Just a quick email to tell you that "we are arrived in India!"  Which seems actually more amazing to me than anyplace we have been cruising.  India for heavens sake.  Cochin isn’t the India of "The Jewel in the Crown."  Monsoon Wedding and Slumdog Millionaire is more like it.   It’s the India of BRIC: Brazil Russia, India and China whose economies are supposed to be incredibly strong in the future.  We have some money in a BRIC mutual fund so I told Randal that when we spend money here we will be making money!  Of course when a whole bag of veggies , cucumber, cabbage and tomatoes costs 60 rupees and 44 rupees = $1 I’m not sure we’ll be building our portfolio based on the spending of cruisers like us.  I’m sure we’ll buy more than veggies because the cotton clothing is very tempting and the spices are wonderful. 

  We are staying in a small boat yard on Bazaar Road just a ten minute walk from "Jew Town."  More about that in following emails.The yard is owned by John Crabtree and his partner Fumio who helped us with the lines and to get settled.  John is Irish by birth and a doctor.   Funio is Japanese but both were living in the UK before coming here to develop their boat yard.  They have invited us to go for lunch with some of their friends on Sunday. 

   Yesterday, after 3 nights and another rough passage we dropped anchor about 8:45 am, were visited by officials, went to shore about 11:30 am, checked in, ATMed and got phone cards for our cell phones and the computer 3G phone and arrived back on the boat about 5pm.  Moved the boat at 6pm when the tide was best and had a late dinner, came back and finally showered and then went to sleep.

  Today we walked to Jew Town looking for an Internet Cafe of which there are few because everyone has a mobile or wifi, so I was told by the Idiom Book shop.  He offered his for us to use as did other merchants in Jew Town but we needed to get the cell working, which hadn’t,  so we went off to do that and it was another all day affair…but now it works and we met a lovely tuk tuk driver who took us around and showed us where to buy fruit and veggies and we will call him again.

On the dock where we live.

Standing on the bow and looking to our left.

Our neighbor and her baby .

Because of the way the land goes between the yard and her house, we can’t just walk there from our dock and visit. We would have to go out onto the street and turn left.

Across the way is the small quarantine anchorage where you drop anchor and wait for the officials to come and do an initial check and then give you permission to go ashore and go through the formal, slow, check-in formalities. The Malabar Hotel is just there too.  No greedy officials like in Sri Lanka.  Just lots and lots and lots of paperwork.

Small ferry terminal.

Further down past our neighbor’s house is a ferry terminal that takes you around the different parts of the area by small ferry. You can also go by tuk tuk over the busy roads and bridges. The big white cruise ships are actually across the channel.

Looking right from our starboard side.

A ten minute walk along the road in this direction is the Sea Gull Hotel and Family Restaurant. We ate there last night and lunch today. We returned for lunch to see if I’d left my RED SOX hat there! I saved it from the officials in Sri Lanka only to leave it in a tuk tuk is what I think. On our way back after dinner we passed the small gate to the boat yard and wondered back and forth along the road finally getting into a tuk tuk. My sciatic leg is at it again. When we finally saw our gate and got out I guess I left my hat in the tuk tuk. It doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the boat and the restaurant said they didn’t have it. Only consolation is that the last time I lost a Red Sox hat, in Sai Kung, Hebe Haven, Hong Kong 2007…they won the Series. Maybe better than buying charms is losing my hat. Now I have my old green made in Olongapo fake B hat.

We walk off the dock and down the path to the metal door and go out onto Bazaar Street.

You can see the metal fence gate and the building across the road with the windows.

Wish I had noticed it when we had left for dinner but it had been a very long several days with little sleep and then the long check in process. We did notice the area was quite charming and seemed very safe as we walked back in the dark.

Now I tell tuk tuk drivers to take us to the Orphanage on Bazaar Road and they know where that is.

We have some jump ropes and school notebooks and such on the boat. I’ll bring them to the orphanage before we leave.

Getting on an off the boat is actually very easy…especially compared to the blue plastic peril in Galle.

Concrete dock, wood pilings, board tied with ropes, fenders, Doramac’s hull.

The fenders separate us from the board and the board keeps us away from the pilings which is what the dock is attached to.

Sunset tonight.

You can see the light on in the boatyard. Our watchman is sitting there but you can’t see him. He is the cartoon stereotype of an Indian with a bright turban and sarong and skinny legs. He seems pretty elderly. When we returned to the yard after today’s adventures he was sitting listening to the Rolling Stones!

Ru

DoraMac